Colorado Freedom Memorial event draws crowd to Fort Morgan City Park

ByJENNI GRUBBS Times Staff Writer

Posted:
04/09/2013 04:58:24 PM MDT

People look at the glass blocks that soon will be part of the Colorado Freedom Memorial in Aurora. The truck carrying the blocks, which are engraved with around 6,000 names of Colorado veterans who gave their lives serving this country, stopped in Fort Morgan on Monday, April 8, 2013, and the city put on a ceremony to honor the memorial project. (Jenni Grubbs/Fort Morgan Times)

Members of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post No. 2551 in Fort Morgan present the colors Monday morning during the April 8, 2013, ceremony honoring the stop in the city of the truck carrying the glass blocks that will make up the Colorado Freedom Memorial. The memorial will honor those from Colorado who died serving in the military. (Jenni Grubbs/Fort Morgan Times)

What began as an impromptu event turned into a pretty big deal for the city of Fort Morgan on Monday morning.

In a less than two weeks, Cathy Shull, who helps organize the Viaero Glenn Miller SwingFest and many other community events, pulled together a wide range of people, leaders, organizations and entities for a ceremony to honor a stop in Fort Morgan of the glass blocks that will make up the Colorado Freedom Memorial.

That ceremony included music, speeches and limited viewing of the blocks, which have the names of 5,000 to 6,000 Colorado veterans who died or went missing in action while serving this country, on the semi-truck.

People of a wide variety of ages gathered in City Park a little before 9 a.m.

The Lake Street Choir sings patriotic songs at the ceremony honoring the Colorado Freedom Memorial's stop in Fort Morgan and its connection to the city. The choir is made up of fifth- and sixth-graders from Baker Central School in Fort Morgan and directed by Kim Pflug. (Jenni Grubbs/Fort Morgan Times)

Monday, most of them not knowing for sure what was to come.

But they were not disappointed.

Members of Fort Morgan VFW Post 2551 gave the event an official feel by presenting the colors in the park, and then local musicians James Graff, Jacob Bieber, Letty Graff and Tertia Cain sang the National Anthem.

Rick Crandall, who is a Denver radio host on KEZW-AM and is the president of the Colorado Freedom Memorial Foundation Board, served as the emcee at the event.

"Glenn Miller is one of the names on those glass panels on the truck," Crandall told the crowd. "This is our little project we've brought to your town."

He said that the veterans whose names were on the glass blocks came from all over Colorado, but many died in military conflicts in many other parts of the world.

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"We believe that we're bringing them home with those names on the glass panels," Crandall said.

The Colorado Freedom Memorial will be constructed in Aurora, and that was where the truck was headed from Fort Morgan after Monday's event.

The local folks took the opportunity to look at what they could see of the pieces of glass with the etched names while they were in Fort Morgan.

But first, they heard a number of speeches from local leaders and heard Fort Morgan schoolchildren sing patriotic songs.

People hold their hands to their chest as the National Anthem is sung during the ceremony April 8, 2013, honoring the Colorado Freedom Memorial's connection to and stop in Fort Morgan. Glenn Miller is one of the names of Colorado veterans who died serving this country that is etched onto the glass blocks. (Jenni Grubbs/Fort Morgan Times)

"This is quite a big thing for me, as mayor," Fort Morgan Mayor Terry McAlister said. "We take too many things for granted."

He said he had visited the national war memorials in Washington, D.C., and that had reminded him that "we have veterans who walk amongst us every day."

McAlister said that Americans owe them our freedom.

"Keep that thought in mind -- freedom isn't free," he told the crowd.

Brush City Administrator Monty Torres called it "always a good day when you get to celebrate veterans."

He pointed out that our country "always needs more soldiers," so it was good to honor the ones who had served. "As the ones we have retire, we need to replenish them.

Fort Morgan Mayor Terry McAlister speaks at the ceremony Monday honoring the Colorado Freedom Memorial's glass blocks passing through the city on the way to Aurora, where it will be pieced together. "We have veterans who walk amongst us every day," McAlister said. "We owe them our freedom." (Jenni Grubbs/Fort Morgan Times)

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Clad in red, the fifth and sixth-grade students in Baker Central School's Lake Street Choir then sang a song about "the spirit of America" and about freedom.

"That's a tough act to follow," quipped the next speaker, Morgan County Commissioner Brian McCracken.

But he did his best.

"The names that are represented on that, we owe a debt that can never be repaid," McCracken said. "This wall will honor them every day."

Crandall told the crowd that names on the Colorado Freedom Memorial would "reach every county" in the state.

"It touches people in all the communities," he said.

And while the glass blocks on the truck may not have looked all that impressive to the Fort Morgan residents, "it will look a lot better than that when it's all together," Crandall said.

From left, James Graff, Jacob Bieber, Letty Graff and Tertia Cain sing the National Anthem at the ceremony April 8, 2013, in Fort Morgan for the Colorado Freedom Memorial. The glass blocks that briefly stopped in the city are etched with the names of Colorado veterans who died while serving in the military and will become part of a permanent memorial in Aurora. (Jenni Grubbs/Fort Morgan Times)

"But we think it looks pretty good right now."

The Lake Street Choir wrapped things up by singing "God Bless America," which was followed by a VFW bugler playing Taps.

Afterward, the crowd had a chance to speak with Crandall or the other Colorado Freedom Memorial volunteers, who were accepting donations and selling T-shirts and related musical CD's.

They also had an opportunity to scope out what they could of the glass blocks and the names etched on them.

The names that were on the blocks that came through Fort Morgan won't be all that end up on the memorial, though, Crandall said.

"The unfortunate thing is with military record-keeping not being the greatest thing, we're not sure we have all the names," he said.

Between 5,000 and 6,000 names are etched on these glass blocks that will become part of the Colorado Freedom Memorial to be built in Aurora. The names are of those Colorado veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice for the United States while serving in the military. The truck carrying the glass blocks stopped briefly in Fort Morgan on April 8, 2013. (Jenni Grubbs/Fort Morgan Times)

"But we'll make it right."

The memorial started out as Crandall's idea, and now it is becoming a reality.

"Look what it got me into," he said, obviously moved by the response from the Fort Morgan crowd.

Fort Morgan veteran John Barber called the ceremony and seeing the glass blocks "awesome."

"This is very touching," Barber said, adding that he had "known about the memorial since it started."

"It's just awesome," she said. "I hope I can get to Aurora when it's all set up."

Fort Morgan resident Nancy Arnold called the ceremony in City Park "wonderful" and "touching."

"We're so pleased they came to Fort Morgan," she said, but added that she would have liked to have seen even more people there.

Fort Morgan City Manager Jeff Wells said he appreciated that the Colorado Freedom Memorial came through the city.

"I believe that what they're doing is a great thing -- honoring their sacrifice," Wells said. "It's nice to be reminded that freedom isn't free so we can appreciate it."

Wells said he also was happy to see the turnout of the community at the event.

Shull said she was "ecstatic" that all of her seemingly last-minute planning panned out.

"It's been awesome," she said. "It brought a few chills to me, but I think that's what's supposed to happen."

James Graff called it "pretty amazing" that the truck carrying the blocks would stop in Fort Morgan for the event.

"This was cool," he said. "It's very humbling to read those panels."

He said he also was happy that the young singers and other schoolchildren got to be there.

"I'm excited that our youth got to be exposed to this," he said. "As the generation that knows all the stories gets older, it's important that our youth hear those stories."

Fort Morgan Police Chief Keith Kuretich said he also got a lot out of the ceremony.

"Those little kids, they won't be able to appreciate it now, but hopefully as they get older and go visit the memorial, they can say it's something they participated in," Kuretich said.

The chief was involved in helping organize police escorts in and out of the city for the truck carrying the panels and all of the accompanying motorcycles from the volunteer Colorado Patriot Guard.

He said it wasn't hard to put that together on a tight schedule.

"We had short notice, but that's what we do best -- react," Kuretich said.

He said everything went well, and "it was not only an honor, but a privilege to escort the memorial" both into and out of the city.

From Fort Morgan, the truck carrying the blocks headed to Aurora, where the Colorado Freedom Memorial will be assembled. It will be built by the city of Aurora on a 2-acre parcel near Buckley Air Force Base in a new park.

With glass blocks "that will reflect Colorado's mountains and blue skies," the memorial will be about 14 feet tall and 100 feet wide, according to cfmf.net.

The dedication of the memorial is scheduled for May 26.

"I think we're very fortunate to have this stop in our town -- and on my watch," McAlister said. "It's something that you have to feel touched when you see these names and know they died for you."

Fort Morgan schoolchildren move toward the truck holding the glass blocks for the Colorado Freedom Memorial, which stopped in Fort Morgan on April 8, 2013. The memorial will honor Colorado veterans who died while serving in the military. (Jenni Grubbs/Fort Morgan Times)

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